Tampa Pension’s Sole Manager Beats the S&P 500 Over 50 Years

Unlike most other US public retirement plans of its size, the Tampa Fire & Police Pension Fund doesn’t invest in hedge funds, private equity or private credit. It doesn’t hire consultants to help it pick outside managers. Instead, for the past 50 years, its investments in stocks and bonds have been overseen by a single manager, Bowen, Hanes & Co., a nine-person firm led by Harold “Jay” Bowen III. In short, Tampa and Bowen Hanes do one thing, and the rest of the institutional world does something else.

Featured in the June/July issue of Bloomberg Markets. Photograph by William Mebane for Bloomberg Markets

Photographer: William Mebane

Consider the Tampa fund’s performance, though. It racked up ...